Rutland
FRANCISCO, M. Judson
Men of Vermont: Illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters & Sons of
Vermont. Ullery. Brattleboro: Transcript Publishing Company, 1894, pp 144-146
M. Judson FRANCISCO, of Rutland [Rutland County, Vermont], was born 05 August
1835 at West Haven [Rutland County, Vermont], and was the third son of John
FRANCISCO, who moved to West Haven in 1795, participated in the War of 1812,
and at the battle of Plattsburgh was one of the famous Green Mountain Boys.
M. Judson FRANCISCO left home when sixteen years old for Ohio, to enter
Oberlin College. After completing his studies there he passed several years
traveling through the West and South, visiting all the states then admitted
to the Union. He returned to Vermont in 1859, returning West again in
October 1860, as principal, of the Northwestern Commercial College at Fort
Wayne [Allen County], Indiana. Here he resided during the first years of the
Rebellion and took an active apart in raising volunteers for the Union cause,
and in circumventing the schemes of the "Knights of the Golden Circle" [an
organization of Northerners who sympathized with the South during the Civil
War; later known as the Order of American Knights and still later as the
Order of the Sons of Liberty, some of whom discouraged enlistment, encouraged
draft resistance, or assisted deserters.] Mr. HOLMES was directly connected
with the founding of the brass industry in the United States and established
a large number of manufacturing concerns in Connecticut, notably among these
being the Holmes, Booth & Hayden Manufacturing Company; the Waterbury Brass
Company; the Plume & Atwood Manufacturing Company; the Scoville Button
Company; the Waterbury Clock Company, and the Wolcottville Brass Company.
Leaving Fort Wayne in 1864, Mr. FRANCISCO accepted the presidency of the
Pennsylvania College of Trade and Finance, at Harrisburg [Dauphin County,
Pennsylvania], where he organized a large and flourishing institution, in
which many men now at the head of influential corporations received their
first knowledge of commercial principles. After several years of close
application in the management of the college, failing health compelled him to
relinquish his position, and he returned to his native state, where he found
renewed vigor, and entered upon that sphere of activity which was destined to
be of wider scope than that of any preceding years. When the English fire
insurance companies were negotiating for admission into the United States,
Mr. FRANCISCO was promptly tendered and assumed the general management for
Vermont of the North British and Mercantile of Edinburgh and the Liverpool
and London and Globe of London. He was later made manager of the Vermont,
New Hampshire, and Northern New York departments of several other like
companies; it was while in the service of these companies that he made his
memorable argument before the joint committee of the state Senate and House
of Representatives in opposition to the so-called "valued policy" bill. He
has also the distinction of having written the largest fire policy ever
issued in New England, the face value being $2,100,000.
In 1887 he was elected president of the Rutland Electric Light Company, and
since that time has devoted the best part of his energy to furthering the
success of his different electrical ventures. In 1887 he also became a
member of the National Electric Light Association. At the convention of the
latter organization in Kansas City he was elected one of the executive
committee, holding that position until the Providence convention when he was
chosen second vice president. At the St. Louis meeting he was elected first
vice president, which place he still occupies. His paper on municipal
ownership, read before the convention of the National Association at Cape
May, New Jersey, required two editions to supply the popular demand. Shortly
after this he appeared before the joint committee of the Senate and House of
Representatives in Washington [D. C.] with a review of the
Postmaster-General's argument for a limited postal telegraph, and later still
reviewed the subject of municipal ownership before the Massachusetts
Legislature. Since the publication of his book, entitled "Municipal
Ownership, Its Fallacy," with other numerous contributions to various
scientific and literary journals, Mr. FRANCISCO has been acknowledged the
best authority of the day upon this problem.
As a citizen of Rutland he ranks as one of its foremost and progressive
representatives. He does not aim at political preferment, but confines his
labors to the interest of his business life, which fact is evinced by the
careful and energetic supervision given the institutions with which he is
associated. He is the senior partner of M. J. Francisco & Son; president of
the Rutland Electric Light Company; vice president of the National Electric
Light Association; director of the Rutland Trust Company; member of the
Rutland Board of Trade, the Rutland County Association of Underwriters, the
American Institute of Electrical Engineers; a Mason of many years standing
and a stockholder or director in many other corporations outside the state.
In 1863 Mr. [M. Judson] FRANCISCO married [Miss] Margaret HOLMES, daughter of
Israel HOLMES, of Waterbury [New Haven County], Connecticut, one of the
oldest and best known families of that state. He has two sons: I. Holmes
and Don C.
Submitted by Cathy Kubly